


It shouldn’t have been a surprise

by IdkandUdc



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Protective Keith (Voltron), idk how to tag tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:54:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdkandUdc/pseuds/IdkandUdc
Summary: They shouldn’t have been surprised when Lance got hurt, but maybe it had to do something with his wording for the situation.





	1. Part I

They were in a mission, infiltrating a ship that was supposed to hold information on the whereabouts of Haggar. 

Here is how it panned out, Pidge was concentrating on getting the information that was highly encrypted. Hunk was by her trying to keep her nerves down, after all this was a highly important mission and they needed all the information they could get, but this base was highly guarded, one small mistake and it would all go to shit. 

Lance , Allura and Keith trying to find more information around the ship, information on what new technologies the Galra had been developing since they were gone for three years. 

So, what happened shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it actually was, maybe it had something to do with his wording...

~~~

Lance was just walking, his guard up. This mission was too important for him to mess up, like always. He knew Keith was the closest to him because he could see it in his map. He didn't like him being the closest one though. From how Keith had been treating him since he came back Lance could tell that he didn't like him anymore, they had worked so hard on their relationship, why was it falling apart now? It had gone to the point where Lance couldn't tell if Keith even cared about him at all. Would he care if he died. 

Everyone had been rude to Lance for a while now, but it was probably only because of stressful situations, they snapped on anyone who bothered them even a little. Often times they snapped at Lance because he knew he had to come and let people take their anger out on him, it was what he was best at. But Keith was a special case, because Lance wouldn't even do anything to provoke him, Keith would just do it. 

So that's why he thought Keith hated him now.

Then something snapped him out of his thoughts, or rather someone, he found a Galra officer looking directly at him, they both were frozen in place, Lance knew he couldn't scream out for help because that would mean distracting Pidge so he did the next best thing, he pulled out his bayard and it came in the shape of a sword. 

The Galra officer in front of him pulled out a small knife, as Lance placed his sword in the officer's neck and sliced it. The problem here was that just before he could pull his sword back, killing him, the guy stabbed him.

Still, Lance had the upper hand in this, since now the officer was left discarded on the floor, already dead from blood loss, Lance would be accompanying him if he didn't think of something fast, that's when it occurred to him; Keith could help. 

The thing was that much as he would've liked just calling him simply saying something like 'hey Keith I was just stabbed can you help me?' He couldn't, because that would mean distracting everyone, so he went with the next best thing. As of now he was sliding down the wall. 

"Hey um Keith," he hated how his voice seemed to quiver as he said Keith's name, but that will have to do. "I got you a knife and it's pretty cool, didn't you bring a bag with you? Because you know, I didn't and I can't carry this all the time and that would be just a hazard y-" Keith cut him off.

"Ugh, okay. Let me get there and get it, you continue walking, I hit a dead end so it doesn't matter." Keith said coldly, and Lance just gulped as to distract him from the pain that was coming from his side. 

Then he just laid there, waiting for Keith to come rescue him. Holding his wound with both of his hands as to stop the blood from oozing out of his wound, he hadn't even taken the knife out in fear of making it worse, he was caught up in his thoughts. 

Until Keith cut through them with a sour tone "Lance I told you to move why are you just there, MOVE. We need to search around and. You. Are. Not. Helping." There was a brief silence where you could hear Keith huffing before he spoke up again. "You know what? Never mind I'll get there and go with you since I'm really close to your location."

So Lance just waited until he heard someone enter the room. He looked up and saw Keith looking around. 

Painfully and holding back the shriek at the back of his throat Lance pulled his hands away from his wound so he could make a signal to Keith to keep quiet when he saw his state, Lance really didn't want to scare anyone. 

Keith saw him, and his mouth formed some words, but Lance quickly signaled him to shut it, then Lance carefully took off his helmet and signaled Keith to do the same.

Then Keith crouched to his level and softly said, "What happened to you?" as he took his hand to Lance's face and wiped some blood that was coming from his mouth, his skin was maybe a little hot, but not so much for it to be a problem. 

"That guy found me and... yeah" he said breathlessly pointing to the corpse in front of him. "Okay, now, why didn't you ask for help." Keith asked, but Lance just furrowed his brows, he didn't have enough air to speak, he felt like he was drowning.Even then he tried to speak.

It didn't work, in fact it felt horrible. He started coughing so much, he felt his lungs rattling, and he knew he was spluttering blood everywhere. Then Keith was just muttering encouragements to him, as he was patting his back. 

Once he calmed down Keith spoke to him "okay, no more questions. I need to tell the team though, we have to get you out of here immediately, you're severely hurt." Lance would've liked to argue with him but all of a sudden he felt so tired he just nodded.

Keith started putting his helmet on his head and stood up. "Team, Lance an I have to leave right now." Keith said, his voice weary. Lance was pretty sure someone responded, he didn't know who though, and he could only tell because then Keith looked at him, Keith probably now knew why he did it, he didn't want the others to get stressed over his situation. "Yes, Lance was stabbed, he needs medical attention now."

A small pause. 

"No, no, you guys wrap things up around here while I take him to somewhere safer." Keith now sounded angry and that scared him. 

"H-hey Keith, can I take a nap?" Lance said weakly, and Keith looked down at him in horror. Did he say something wrong? Did he fuck everything up? 

Lance felt a burn in his eyes and his lower lip started trembling, he knew Keith didn't like him but he didn't want to disappoint him either. Then a sob cut through him, the pain of his wound now much more dull, and then another and another, until Keith's hands cupped his face so Lance looked at him, his face looked soft, so he wasn't angry?

"Hey, hey, relax, breathe with me. In, and out..." Keith continued sampling his own breathing until Lance calmed down, then Keith spoke again, looking at him with furrowed eye brows "Pidge, I need help with something... no, he says he wants to sleep... okay, thanks." 

Then he looked at Lance and said, "Come on, I need to get you out of here." Keith said, putting a strong arm under the back of his knees and another under his neck. Then Keith closed his eyes, he was concentrating. 

"So you're not mad at me?" Lance said innocently, his breathing was becoming more ragged. Keith looked down at him, a single tear running down his check, "No Lance, I'm not angry, how could I be?"

"Now look alive, our ride is here." Keith. Lance looked up a little and all he could see was the color red, when did his vision become so fuzzy? "Red" Lance said breathlessly, as they were getting inside the lion. 

~~~

Keith sat Lance in the pilot chair, while he just crouched in front of him, then he looked tenderly around him, "Long time no see, right red?" Keith felt the purr of the lion in his mind and smiled softly. "I need you to take me to the Atlas as fast as possible, also please don't stir too much I gotta tend to him, okay?" Keith felt her purr of approval and started by taking a good look at the boy, his face looked pale, too pale, and there was blood smudged all around his mouth, at least he was responsive. 

"Hey um, Lance, I know this is going to hurt but I really, reeeaaaalllllyyyy need to take that knife out, like, right now, I don't want you to die." Lance looked down at him, and smirked and said, "heh, wouldn't- wouldn't be the first time." Keith didn't make sense of his words, 'wouldn't be the first time' what? He didn't care right now, Lance needed him to help.

Keith did it fast, he pulled the knife out, really fast. Then he heard the worst sound he had ever heard, Lance's scream, it was so full of pain. Keith didn't even know a human could produce such noise, but Lance did, and it destroyed  his heart. 

Before he knew it he put his hands around his face trying to comfort him, tear tracks were already on Lance's face, as soon as Keith finished calming him down he felt the cockpit move a lot, they finally made it.  

Keith quickly picked up a barely conscious, and possibly delirious Lance and basically ran out of the lion, where the fuck is Shiro.

Lance didn't have a lot of time to spare so Keith just screamed Shiro's name at the top of his lungs several times until he showed up, then Keith looked down at the boy in his arms, he looked in pain, but he was smiling? Then Shiro spoke, "W-what happened to him?" Shiro said, his voice shaky, but Keith only responded with a sob. 

"Okay, okay, Keith relax, give him to me and we take him to the medical wing, okay?" Keith just nodded really fast and gave Lance to Shiro, then Shiro ran all the way to the medical wing with Keith at his heels, and placed Lance in a table, doctors were already all around Lance. 

Then Keith pulled out the knife from the bag where he had put it, it still had Lance's blood. He inspected the knife, it looked familiar...

It was a marmoran knife.Why why why why why why- "Keith, Lance is calling you." Keith stood up as fast as possible, leaving the knife discarded on a table. 

Keith got where Lance was, he felt the Atlas shake a little, the others had probably already come back. He took Lance's hand in his own, it was so cold. "Hey Keith," Lance said weakly, "I'm sorry for not telling you this until now- I love you." Keith couldn't look at his face, he just couldn't, so he looked at his hand, while he had tears pricking his eyes, it was the same as that vision.

Lance's hand went limp.

His heart monitor's steady beep stopped instead a stale beep was what could be heard.

He was dead. 

Keith knew he was screaming, tears were falling down his face. He did everything to try to stop this. Someone was pulling him away. 

He did absolutely everything. When he was in the Quantum Abyss with his mother he saw just this, he saw Lance saying he loves him and then dying while holding his hand, he saw it all. 

He also thought he fixed it, there he also saw other things with Lance, he saw him holding Lance's hand and kissing him, he thought that if he didn't get close to him this wouldn't happen, maybe he could change the future. But that didn't work, Lance died and he couldn't even spend some happy times with him. He fucked everything up. 

Then he looked up, and saw Allura. Keith didn't realize what she was doing at first, until he saw her glowing like she did when she revived Shiro, she was reviving him. 

He felt around him, someone was still holding him so he wouldn't run, it was Hunk, he was shaking. "Hunk? Could you... let me go?" after those words he felt the arms around him loosen slowly until they simply slumped to Hunk's sides. 

Keith was about to run to Lance's side, but before he did that he took a glance  at the scene behind him, Pidge was hugging Hunk, while silent tears streamed on both of their faces.

Then he ran, he ran like his life depended on it.

He needed questions answered but most importantly he needed to have a talk.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was so fuzzy. It felt like he had just woken up from a long nap, but he still felt so tired.  His side was aching, what was going on? It felt like a dull ache, like he was with anesthesia. He felt something in his face too, an oxygen mask? 

He heard someone muttering something but he didn't understand a single word, all the syllables were mushed together. He still tried to make sense of them, and as he came more into consciousness he started hearing. The words, they came from a familiar voice, but who was it? Did he actually know this person?

"... and I couldn't even" oh, OH! It was Keith! "-but I didn't mean this, I didn't actually want you to... I didn't want you just to disappear from..." why was Keith so sad?

"I didn't want you to just die... I am such a fucking asshole, that day you literally gave me the best compliments ever, and what did I fucking say!? I said I didn't want to spend all eternity with you? And oh your heart, YOUR HEART LANCE!" He can hear Keith crying, he felt a small smile form on his lips . Sure, he didn't like Keith angry but this anger was not directed at him, it was at himself, and it felt like an apology. 

"Maybe if I wasn't so rude to you, you wouldn't, you wouldn't be here, like this... maybe you would've called for help faster." He wanted to look at Keith but his side throbbed, he then felt a sob bubble from his throat, so Keith didn't hate him, now saying that he loves him doesn't feel as embarrassing. 

He heard some shuffling before Keith's face hovered in front of him, "LANCE, YOU ARE OKAY!" Keith beamed, all Lance could do was show him a smile, he didn't feel very confident talking right now, but he saw something sticking out in Keith's appearance and he had to tease him about it.

"Your eye bags suit you, mister emo boy." He said with a soft giggle that made his side flare up in pain. "No shit Lance, I haven't fucking slept in 3 days. You know leaving someone with an 'I love you'" he said with air quotes "and then dying, only to be revived and falling into a coma does this to a person." 

"Heh, you liked it that much huh?" Lance couldn't even finish talking before Keith removed his oxygen mask, to then give him a small kiss, putting the oxygen mask back on. Lance smiled tenderly at Keith, Keith was just so pretty. "I'm gonna go call everyone, okay?" Before Lance could answer Keith just left the room. 

After Keith left, Lance started to take in his surroundings, there was an annoying beeping noice in the background. His pointer finger had something that resembled a clip, that was connected to... he didn't know he didn't want to turn in fear of his side hurting. Right arm was directly connected to...blood? and his left arm was connected to something transparent, he could only tell because of the colors flowing through the small portion he could see. 

Then he heard a bunch of steps and a lot of shuffling. After that he saw the faces of his friends over him, all of them sporting tired faces. He didn't see Keith, however, but he felt his hand trying to hold his, he appreciated the gesture. 

The first one to speak was Hunk, "Man, you gave us quite the scare, you know?" His voice was trembling before Pidge continued, "Yes, Keith panicked so much he took the knife out, when he shouldn't have because that would make you bleed more, and then you gave Keith a full blown panic attack when your heart stopped. Hunk had to pull him away because he was gonna trash the place." Pidge stated whipping something away from her eye, and Keith retorted, "hey I wasn't the one holding onto Hunk the whole time." 

Lance smiled at the exchange but felt like he needed to say something, "well, at least it didn't hurt as much as last time-" Keith interrupted him with a soft "what?" but he didn't mind, "I mean it's hurting for longer but last time it hurt so bad." He felt Keith standing up only for him to show up in his line of vision, as the others were making questions, why were they so confused? Then he looked at Allura, she had a guilty face. 

Ah, that actually made a lot of sense. 

Then Allura started talking, "I uh, remember when we went to fix the omega shield? Well um, at one point Lance got hit pretty hard and-" Pidge cut her off her voice hard, "pretty hard? From what he is saying it was enough to kill him. Why didn't you tell us?" 

Lance's eyelids started becoming heavy, and he didn't hear any more of the conversation. He just drifted back to sleep. 

When he woke up again it was already night, his side was stinging way more than when he woke up earlier but he felt more awake. 

He realized that the annoying beeping noise from before was actually monitoring his heart, the thing in his finger was connected to it, he made a soft whimper as he tried to move to see if Keith was actually with him or the stuff from before was only a dream, his memories sure felt foggy. 

Sure enough, Keith was there, he was fast asleep with his arms crossed, just from looking at him Lance could tell that his neck was gonna ache a lot when he woke up, but if what he told him before wa true then this has been the first time in about three days that he actually sleeps so he left him he, drifting back to sleep himself. 

When he woke up for the third time it was to someone shuffling, so he cracked his eyes open to find Keith about to leave the room. "Keith? Where are you going?" He turned around with a smile on his face, running to where Lance lay. 

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Keith was beaming, and Lance smiled at his question. Honestly he didn't know, so he evaluated himself a little before answering, "well, I guess I'm a little hungry, and uh, it hurts to breathe..." Keith looked down and stared holes into the ground before Lance took him out of his trance, "Keith? You okay buddy?"

"Do you remember when I took the knife out?" Keith blurted out. Lance was taken aback by the question, honestly he didn't remember it that much, it just felt like a bad dream. "Yeah I shouldn't have done that, I pulled it out wrong and well... your lung is damaged." Keith shook his head as to change the subject.

"Anyways, should I call the others? I called them before but I think you were really drugged, you literally fell asleep at the start of our discussion!" Keith smiled brightly, and then Lance spoke, "yeah talking to them would be nice."

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued... (because if you think I’m gonna stop hurting my baby, you’re wrong)


End file.
